The Expanded Food Voucher Program will be discontinued come 2013.
Permanent Secretary for Social Welfare Govind Sami says only 2,000 people had applied and received assistance under that program.
He says it was not fully –utilized so government has decided to do away with it.
“The expanded food voucher program when introduced has three components. One was assistance for those that are over 70 years, two those children attending schools in the rural areas and three, pregnant mothers using rural stations. All the programs were under-utilized. The Ministry of Education has enough assistance in its programme and the Ministry of health also has programs so it was very poorly utilized."
The 2,000 recipients will be given an option to apply for any other assistance scheme under the Social Welfare Assistance Program.
